VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3SEPTEMBER 2011EDITOR: LESLIE HOUIN

Black Film Center/ArchiveIndiana University(W)rap

SHEETThe

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In this issue:

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New PublicationsNew WebsitesRecent Acquisitions

Fall 2011 Film Festivals

Black CameraCall for Papers

Film Studies. During the 1970s, it became apparent that films by and about African Americans from 1890 to the present were rapidly disappearing due to tech-nical indifference to preservation, lack of established outlets for the films, and inadequate teaching resources.

At the same time, important films by black independent film-makers which offered an alterna-tive to Hollywood’s view of black culture were similarly threatened by obscurity and neglect. Klot-man and others believed that promotion of black films as a

After 30 years, the Black Film Center/Archive has approached this major milestone as an oppor-tunity to reflect upon its mission as a repository of films and relat-ed materials by and about African Americans. It is a moment to remember how the organization started, its major achievements and programs, and our vision for the organization as we plan for our future.

The BFC/A was founded in 1981 by Professor Phyllis R. Klotman, who directed the Archives for 18 years and is now professor emer-ita of Afro-American Studies and

genre worthy of serious intellec-tual consideration, coupled with the introduction of black films to all enthnic groups, would help to reverse the trend of severe ne-glect.

During Klotman’s tenure, the BFC/A began an outreach pro-gram, created workshops and film festivals for independent black filmmakers such as Kathleen Col-lins, Bill Gunn, Warrington Hudlin and Carl Weathers; collaborated with the Black Expo and Ma-dame Walker Urban Life Center

BFC/A History continued on page 2

Black Film Center/Archive Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Fall EventsBFC/A Staff News

BFC/A History

Mississippi River 9th Ward Film and Arts Festival

Professor Phyllis R. Klotman, Founding Director of the BFC/A (far right), with Gloria Gibson and Frances Stubbs (1986).

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in Indianapolis; created a founda-tional collection for the Archive; and started the BFC/A Newsletter which eventually became the aca-demic journal, Black Camera.

In 1999, Klotman retired, step-ping down as director. In the shift from founding director to new leadership, Professor Audrey T. McCluskey became the interim Director of the BFC/A, eventu-ally taking on the role as Director in 2001. Her first major project during her inaugural year was coordinating an international film festival entitled Films of the African Diaspora: Bridging Cultures through Film. The festival featured works by Haile Gerima,

McCluskey then arranged an artist-in-residence program which brought Melvin van Peebles and Salem Mekuria to Indiana Uni-versity. She also made possible a series of film festivals, retrospec-tives, and special screenings on the IUB campus that often had a community outreach component, including children and parents of Bloomington as well as academics and students.

McCluskey also collaborated with the Indiana University Art Museum for the featured exhibi-tion Imaging Blackness, 1915-2002: Film Posters from the BFC/A Collection.

She oversaw the expansion of the BFC/A of the newsletter and the collections. The newsletter, Black Camera, became a micro-journal that included interviews with directors and actors as well as articles written by IU faculty and BFC/A graduate assistants.

One of her final contributions to the BFC/A was the Black Women Filmmakers Forum, which brought filmmakers Alile Sharon Larkin, Jessie Maple, and Yvonne Welbon to IU.

In 2006, McCluskey ended her seven-year tenure at BFC/A to take the position as Director of the Neal-Mar-shall Black Culture Center.

Professor Mi-chael T. Martin became Director of the BFC/A at this time.

During the last five years, the BFC/A grown immensely. Martin expanded the newsletter from a micro-journal to a full academic journal entitled Black Camera: An International Film Journal. The journal--which includes inter-views with filmmakers, actors, and film artists; film reviews; and scholarly articles on African Amer-ican film--is published biannually by Indiana University Press.

Directorship at the BFC/A is complimented by Archivist Mary K. Huelsbeck, who oversees much of the day-to-day opera-tions of the Archive.

0n January 7, 2010, the BFC/A moved from its previous location at the Smith Research Center to the Herman B. Wells Library. The new facilities boast a conference/classroom room; a seminar room; a reading room for research; office space for visiting filmmak-ers or scholars, the director and archivist; work space for gradu-ate assistants, volunteers, and interns; an equipment room; and a climate-controlled storage room for collections.

BFC/A display case at Wells Library, August 2011.

Photo by Leslie Houin

BFC/A History continued on page 5

BFC/A History continued from page 1

IU Cinema poster for the August 2011 screening of Shaft.

Poster by Dan Beetle

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BFC/A Staff News

Shaft - IU Cinema, 6:30pm

Rejoice & Shout - IU Cinema, Th, F 9:30pm; Sat 6:30pm, 9:30pm

Films of Pedro Costa: The Artful Tableau of Everyday Life - IU Cinema3:00 pm: JORGENSEN LECTURE SERIES7:00 pm: Down to Earth10:00 pm: Bones

3:00 pm: Shorts Program (1984-2010)6:30 pm: Colossal Youth9:30pm: The Blood

3:00 pm: In Vanda’s Room6:30 pm: Ne Change Rien9:30 pm: Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?

Arriving at the Truth: Films by Charles Burnett - IU Cinema3:00 pm: Public Interview with Charles Burnett & Michael Martin7:00 pm: Killer of Sheep (Indianapolis Museum of Art)

3:00 pm: Charles Burnett Shorts Program - 1969-20077:00 pm: Killer of Sheep

3:00 pm: My Brother’s Wedding6:30 pm: To Sleep With Anger9:30 pm: The Glass Shield

3:00 pm: Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation

Reception in Honor of Phyllis Klotman & Charles Burnett - BFC/A, 6:00 pm

Stacey Doyle is the newly appointed Graduate Research Assistant at the BFC/A. As a MLIS graduate student, she volun-teered for the BFC/A for a year before accepting an internship this summer.

Leslie Houin, Graduate As-sistant, interned this summer at Artpace San Antonio, a contem-porary arts center that boasts one of the best artist-in-residency pro-grams in the world. She worked in the Curatorial, Education, and Development departments where she conducted research

and wrote curatorial material and grants. She also helped formulate the organization’s current blog management strategies. Houin documented special events and artistic processes during the artists’ residencies while also conducting interviews with the artists.

Nzingha Kendall, Graduate As-sistant, went to London this sum-mer to view Black British films at the British Film Institute. She also saw Contest Terrains at the Tate Modern, an exhibition of recent work by four contemporary artists

working in Africa, co-curated by Tate and the Centre for Contem-porary Art, Lagos.

Michael T. Martin, Director, visited the University of Ottawa for a two-day symposium entitled Articulations of Memory in Cin-emas. Martin presented a paper Historical Trauma: Reading Slavery in the Cinematographic Archive, which engages with memory, its historicity and importance to cin-ematic accounts and readings of historical trauma. It is also about the relevance of memory to the project of worldmaking.

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New Publications

Recent Acquisitions

New BFC/A Book Series

In partnership with IU Press, the BFC/A will launch a book series devoted to the study of black film-makers and seminal and distinc-tive films engaging with black life in the global diaspora.

The personages selected for the series include prominent (living and deceased) and emerging filmmakers and the films comprise feature and short narrative, docu-mentary, and experimental works of enduring historical, cultural and aesthetic importance.

The first books in the series will include Nothing But a Man (1964), Daughters of the Dust (1991), Killer of Sheep (1977), and The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973).

Percival Ethridge Collection

An avid poster collector from Picayune, Mississippi, Percival Eth-ridge donated 18 posters to the BFC/A during his visit to Indiana for the 100th anniversary of the fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi which was founded at Indiana University.

Mr. Ethridge began collecting Blaxploitation film posters, then posters of independent black films of the 1970s, and currently collects posters from the Silent Era of the 1920s and 30s.

John Williams Collection

Inspired by an article written by LaMonda Horton-Stallings enti-tled “Redemptive Softness”: Interi-

ority, Intellect, and Black Women’s Ecstacy in Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground in the Spring 2011 issue of Black Camera, Professor John Williams of Lane Community Col-lege in Eugene, Oregon donated materials documenting the work and life of Collins.

Screen Actors Guild Foundation

The SAG Foundation, an educational, humanitarian and philanthropic 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that enhances the lives of actors by investing in programs which help them in their professional endeavors and the communities in which they live, donated a DVD from their Conversations Series with Phylicia Rashad.

New Websites

The African Film Poster Collec-tion is a special project that the BFC/A began in 2007, inspired by FESPACO and the rarity of African film posters due to small produc-tion budgets.

Recently, the BFC/A received a donation of 119 posters from Gas-ton Kaboré, director of IMAGINE--Film Training Institute in Burkina Faso. The posters come from a variety of countries, including: Algeria, Belgium, Benin, Burkina

Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guniea-Conakry, Mada-gascar, Mali, Morocco, Martinique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.

Sarah Mayersohn, an MLIS graduate student with a concen-tration in archives and the BFC/A’s newest volunteer, is cataloguing and processing all the posters.

African Film Poster Collection

With the immense guidance and assistance of Gyeongja Jun (GJ) Lee, the BFC/A recently launched an updated version of the BFC/A website (http://www.indiana.edu/~bfca/) as well as a new website for its publication, Black Camera (http://www.indiana.edu/~blackcam/).

The new websites provide a user-friendly format designed with the interests and concerns of BFC/A website visitors in mind.

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After the move to the new facil-ity, the BFC/A hosted two impor-tant symposiums in March 2010. From the Post Colonial to the Global Postmodern? African and Carib-bean Francophone Filmmakers and Scholars in Conversation featured filmmakers Gaston Kaboré, Eu-zhan Palcy, Joseph Ramaka, and Jean-Marie Teno. Cinematic Representations of Racial Conflict in ‘Real Time’, brought Robert M. Young and Sam Greenlee to IU to discuss their films, Nothing But a Man and The Spook Who Sat by the Door, respectively, with a panel of scholars.

In addition to Black Camera, an-other major publication, Studies of

Cinema in the Black Diaspora, with IU Press will be launched this fall.

Recruited to work at the BFC/A are self-motivated and forward-thinking graduate assistants, vol-unteers, and interns who dedicate their time to strategic planning and implementation of programs, marketing, archival practices, and publications. As a rapidly expand-ing institution, the BFC/A is one of the best places for IU graduate students from a variety of back-grounds to gain valuable and practical experience in library sci-ence and nonprofit organizational management.

For the 30th anniversary, the

BFC/A started its celebration with a screening of Shaft (1971) at IU Cinema. The Archive will screen films bi-monthly on Friday after-noons and co-sponsor the Pedro Costa and Charles Burnett cam-pus visits and retrospectives at IU Cinema. On November 4th, the BFC/A will host a reception and appreciation of Charles Burnett and Phyllis Klotman, our founder, for her powerful efforts in estab-lishing the Black Film Center/Ar-chive thirty years ago.

BFC/A display case at IU Cinema during Fall 2011.

Photo by Leslie Houin

BFC/A History continued from page 2

Mississippi River 9th Ward Film and Arts Festival

Join us for the Mississippi River 9th Ward Film and Arts Festival, October 6-9, 2011!

On Friday September 16 at the New Orleans African American Mu-seum, there will be a Festival Sneak Preview, featuring Mississippi Damned (2009) with Director Tina Mabry. Admission is free, seating is limited. Reserve a place at: noafest@newor-leansafrikanfilmfest.org or 504-942-8542.

October 6, the Festival opens at the Galvez Restaurant & Atrium with a Gala honoring Harold Battiste, Jr, recipient of the second Toni Cade Bambara Award for Cultural Lead-ership. Come hear Jesse McBride Presents the Next Generation and

a Battiste composition arranged by Dr. Jean Montes for Molto, a funky chamber orchestra!

October 7-9, films screened will focus on youth, women, the violence they endure and often overcome: Draw Yourself! (France, 2010); Shirley Adams: Portrait of a Mother (South Africa, 2009); Africa United (UK, 2010); Murder on a Sunday Morning (France/U.S., 2001); Central Station (Brazil, 1999); Black Venus (France/Tunisia, 2010), with live music by Charmaine Neville, Fredy Omar con su banda, and the Caesar Brothers Funk Box preceding evening screenings. And we will host two roundtables: “Black Men and the Justice System” and “Race and Power in New Orleans in Global Perspective.”

Gala Tickets are $75 each or $135 for two. Tickets available online or by check.

Festival screenings are $5 each. A Festival Pass for all screenings may be purchased for $20, online or by check.

Make checks payable to:NOAFEST2670 George Nick Connor Dr.New Orleans, LA 70119

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ContentsEditor’s Notes 1

Call for Special Issue SubmissionsPrecious and the Novel Push (Suzette Spencer and Carlos Miranda, guest editors) 3

Afrosurrealism in Film/Video (Terri Simone Francis, guest editor) 5

Haile Gerima’s Black Radical Tradition On Screen:African Cinema of Liberation at Home and Abroad(Greg Thomas, guest editor) 7

Articles “Woman Thou Art Bound”: Critical Spectatorship, Black Masculine Gazes, and Gender Problems in Tyler Perry’s Movies 9

Robert J. Patterson

Flora Gomes, Filmmaker in Search of a Nation 31Akin Adesokan

The Last King of Scotland and the Politics of Adaptation 54Lesley Marx

“Draggin’ the Chain”: Linking Civil Rights and African American Representation in The Defiant Ones and In the Heat of the Night 75

Emma Hamilton and Troy Saxby

Interviews“Buses are a Comin’. Oh Yeah!”: Stanley Nelson on Freedom Riders 96

Michael T. Martin

Africultures DossierFESPACO 2011: A Festival under Threat 123

“This Is the Last FESPACO I’ll Be Coming To” 134

“The Way to Help Us Is to Give Us Our Funding on Time” 141Olivier Barlet

DocumentsFeCAViP Manifesto (1990) 146

Federation of Caribbean Audiovisual Professionals

Poster Gallery: Coming Attractions 147

Book ReviewsNovotny Lawrence, Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s: Blackness and Genre 163

Karen Bowdre

Kara Keeling, The Witch’s Flight: The Cinematic, the Black Femme,and the Image of Common Sense 165

Holly Mayne

Priscilla Pena Ovalle,Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom 168

Jennifer ZaleArchival News 173

Professional Notes and Research Resources 181

Notes on Contributors 187

Call for Submissions 191

Black Camera: An International JournalVolume 3, Number 1, Winter 2011

http://www.indiana.edu/~blackcam/

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Venice Film Festival, Aug 31-Sept 10International Film Festival Ireland, 1-9Amakula Kampala Cinema Caravan Festival, 2-30Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 6-12Harlem International Film Festival, 7-11Toronto International Film Festival, 8-18Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, 15-18Hamptons Black International Film Festival, 16-18Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, 17-25Twin Cities Black Film Festival, 18-20Arpa International Film Festival, 22-24DocMiami International Film Festival, 22-25Fieri International Film Festival, 22-25Tulsa International Film Festival, 22-25Prishtina International Film Festival, 22-29Montreal International Black Film Festival, Sept 22-Oct 2International Black Film Festival of Nashville, Sept 28-Oct 2Asheville QFest, Sept 29-Oct 2Camden International Film Festival, Sept 29-Oct 2Cincinnati Film Festival, Sept 29-Oct 2Palo Alto International Film Festival, Sept 29-Oct 2Vancouver International Film Festival, Sept 29-Oct 14New York Film Festival, Sept 30-Oct 16

Sedicicorto International Film Festival, 3-9Arlington International Film Festival, 6-9Festival Do Rio: Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, 6-18Chicago International Film Festival, 6-20Gotham Screen International Film Festival, 7-17Maryland International Film Festival, 13-16Hawaii International Film Festival, 13-23Marbella International Film Festival, 14-16Silicon Valley African Film Festival, 14-16New Orleans Film Festival, 14-20Buffalo International Film Festival, 14-23Gold Lion Film Festival, 15-31Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, 19-23International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, 20-23Austin Film Festival, 20-27Queer Black Cinema Film Festival, 21-23United Nations Association Film Festival, 21-30Vermont International Film Festival, 21-30Mostra Internacional de Cinema, Oct 21-Nov 3Tokyo International Film Festival, 22-30Birmingham Black International Film Festival, 24-30Hollywood Black Film Festival, 27-30Edinburgh African Film Festival, Oct 27-Nov 6Savannah Film Festival, Oct 29-Nov 5

Cape Town International Film Festival, TBDAfrican in Motion Film Festival, 1-6Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival, 3-12Brisbane International Film Festival, 3-13Leeds International Film Festival, 3-20Cinema Tous Ecrans, 4-10Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 4-13North Carolina Latin American Film Festival, 4-19South Asian International Film Festival, 9-15Stockholm International Film Festival, 9-20BronzeLens Film Festival, 10-13St. Louis International Film Festival, 10-20Teaneck International Film Festival, 11-13Amiens Festival International du Film, 11-20Costa Rica International Film Festival, 11-20Mar del Plata International Film Festival, 13-21Portland African American Film Festival, 17-20International Film Festival of India, Nov 23-Dec 3Cairo International Film Festival, Nov 29-Dec 8Whistler Film Festival, Nov 30-Dec 4Africa International Film Festival, Nov 30-Dec 5

Bahamas International Film Festival, 1-4International Film Festival of Marrakech, 2-10Anchorage International Film Festival, 2-11Black Soil International Film Festival, 4-7Dubai International Film Festival, 7-14Monaco International Film Festival, 8-11Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, 8-12Gwangju International Film Festival, 9-12

September

October

November

December

Fall 2011 Film Festivals

The Black Film Center/ArchiveThe BFC/A was founded in 1981 and was the first repository in the United

States for the collection and preservation of films and related materials by and about African Americans. Since that time, its collections have grown and its scope has broadened to include films from other geographical sites in the Afri-can Diaspora. Our collections, which features many independent filmmakers, highlights the work of black writers, actors, producers, directors, and musicians in all aspects of film production.

Objectives• To promote scholarship on black film and serve as a resource for scholars,

researchers, students, and the general public.• To preserve and expand the collection of historically and culturally signifi-

cant films by and about black people.• To encourage film activity by independent black filmmakers.• To undertake and encourage research on the history, impact, theory and

aesthetics of black film traditions.

Black Film Center/ArchiveIndiana University

Wells Library, Room 0441320 East 10th Street

Bloomington, IN 47405

Telephone: (812) 855-6041Fax: (812) 856-5832

Email: bfca@indiana.eduWebsite: http://www.indiana.

edu/~bfca/Blog: blackfilmcenterarchive.

wordpress.com/

• African American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955 Eric Ledell Smith, McFarland, 2010

• ALT 28 Film in African Literature Today Ernest N. Emenyonu (editor), James Currey, 2010

• American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary Deborah Barker and Kathryn McKee (editors), University of Georgia Press, 2011

• Black in Films, Television, and Video: An Encyclopedia Elizabeth Hadley, Routledge, 2010

• Blaxploitation Films Mikel J. Koven, Oldcastle Books, 2010

• Contemporary Black Cinema: Critical Methodologies Paula Massood, Routledge, 2010

• Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror, 1890s to Present Robin R. Means Coleman, Routledge, 2011

• Men in African Film and Fiction Lahoucine Ouzgane (editor), Boydell & Brewer, 2011

• Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer Scott Allen Nollen, McFarland, 2010

• Second Skin: Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface Anne Anlin Cheng, Oxford University Press, 2011

Recent Publications on Black FilmA selection of posters from the Percival Ethridge Collection.